


The Gift of Giving

by kawada_s



Series: Main Universe [6]
Category: Battle Royale - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-23
Updated: 2016-12-23
Packaged: 2018-09-11 09:34:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 16,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8974375
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kawada_s/pseuds/kawada_s
Summary: Kazuo Kiriyama decides to give all his classmates presents. During this process, people are offended, an inflatable Santa is destroyed, a new class meme is made, they lose Ryuhei, and many other shenanigans take place. It will be a Christmas no one will forget.





	

The Gift Of Giving

Many people thought that miracles happened in the Christmas season, but even the firmest believer in this idea would be shocked by Kazuo Kiriyama’s decision to deliver presents to all of his classmates. While the decision seemed like something quite momentous, considering the fact that Kazuo didn’t seem to care about any of the members of it class, it actually wasn’t much. He had just gotten bored and the idea had popped into his mind, and when he could think of nothing else to do, he decided to pursue it.

The mansion was quite lonely all year round, but it was even lonelier by the time Christmas came. All the staff had gone on their holidays by now. He didn’t know why he had them in the first place – he could take care of himself. He barely made messes, knew how to manage money, and could cook perfectly fine, but for some reason, he didn’t want to get rid of them. Kazuo didn’t mind the quiet, but after several days of sitting in the mansion by himself, he wanted to do _something_ with his time.

He wouldn’t bother buying anything – for one, it was Christmas Eve and it would be torture to step foot in a mall, and two, he didn’t think any of them were worth spending his money on. Instead, he spent several careful hours walking around the house and stuffing anything that he didn’t see himself using or needing anytime soon into a large bag. Once he had found forty one items, he stopped and wrote out the names of his classmates. He complied the names in a random order he figured no one else would understand, and was ready.

_They will be quite surprised_ , he told himself. _People like surprises, don’t they?_

**_Kazuhiko Yamamoto and Sakura Ogawa_ **

Kazuo set off for the first home on the list, somehow knowing where everyone lived. It had been another thing he’d spent time memorising when he had nothing else to do. The first name was Kazuhiko Yamamoto, one of the many people in the class who he had never spoken to before. All he really knew about him was that he was dating Sakura Ogawa, and that their public displays of affection had made Ryuhei call them pathetic several times. In response, Mitsuru had asked him if he was jealous that Kazuhiko could actually _get_ a girlfriend. Ryuhei had not been amused by the comment.

Like most times when the Kiriyama family argued, Kazuo stayed out of it. When he did intervene, it was usually to tell them to keep the noise down.

Kazuhiko’s house was rather small. The front yard was neat and some Christmas lights dangled down from the roof. Kazuo could see a light on inside and walked up to the door, knocking lightly. He reached into the bag and got the present ready.

“I’ll get it,” he could hear Kazuhiko say inside. Kazuo waited, and after about a minute or so, Kazuhiko opened the door.

When he saw Kazuo, he stepped back slightly in complete surprise. For a minute, he wondered if he had done anything to somehow ‘wrong’ him, but he was pretty sure he had never spoken to Kazuo in his life. When Kazuo handed something to him, wrapped in Christmas paper, his eyes widened. For a second, he wondered if it was a trick, but decided that Kazuo wouldn’t bother coming out on Christmas Eve just to truck someone. Why would Kazuo care at all about someone he had never spoken before?

“Merry Christmas,” Kazuo said, voice devoid of any emotion. He had only said it because it seemed like the standard thing to say when giving a Christmas present. When Kazuhiko made no move to open it, he sighed. “You can open it now, Yamamoto.”

Before he could, another person appeared in the doorway. A girl in a Christmas sweater that matched the one Kazuhiko was wearing now stood beside him, and Kazuo realised she was Sakura Ogawa. After her mother had to go away during Christmas, Kazuhiko’s parents said she could spend the holidays with them.

“Merry Christmas, Ogawa,” Kazuo said quietly, reaching into his bag and handing her a present. She looked just as surprised as Kazuhiko had.

“T-thank you, Kiriyama,” Sakura replied, a light blush spreading across her cheeks. A part of her wanted to ask why he was giving them presents, but she had decided not to be rude. It was quite unexpected… maybe it showed that Kazuo Kiriyama was kind.

“Come on, open them,” Kazuo said when both of them made no move to open the gifts. The two quickly nodded and began to tear off the paper.

Both of them had received a mug, two of the only gifts Kazuo had to modify before he left. Kazuhiko lifted his up to read what was written on it, frowning slightly. The mug was white, and in bright pink letters, read ‘WORLD’S BEST GRANDMOTHER,’ but Kazuo had crossed the ‘grandmother’ out and in black marker, had written ‘boyfriend’ underneath. It was the only thing he knew about Kazuhiko, so it made sense to give him the mug. He didn’t even know why he had the mug – he couldn’t even remember his grandparents.

Sakura tried to smile, wanting to try and be polite, as he had come all the way to give them presents, after all. She had received the other mug in the set, hers having a large chip in it. It said ‘WORLD’S BEST GRANDFATHER,’ which again, had been crossed out, replaced this time with ‘girlfriend.’ Her and Kazuhiko looked at each other’s mugs and laughed slightly.

“We match,” Sakura smiled at her boyfriend. Kazuo studied her smile. He had been right, people liked surprises. Now that he knew that they were satisfied with the gift, he could move on.

He watched Kazuhiko give her a slight nod, and the two awkwardly clink the mugs together. Afterwards, the two laughed.

“Thank you for the… thought, Kiriyama,” Kazuhiko said. He wasn’t too good with words.

“I should go now. I have more gifts to deliver,” Kazuo got out his list, and crossed out Kazuhiko and Sakura’s names. The two nodded, even more surprised now that it seemed like he was giving _everyone_ in their class presents. Christmas could do strange, but good things to people…

“Thank you again, Kiriyama,” Sakura called out as Kazuo left. She looked down at her mug again. The whole occurrence had been so strange, but oddly… sweet as well.

When Kazuo disappeared from sight, Kazuhiko put his arm around Sakura and the two went back inside, deciding to have a hot chocolate in their new mugs.

**_Takako Chigusa_ **

The next home on the list belonged to Takako Chigusa. Again, Kazuo had never spoken to her before, so again, he had to do some guessing for what to get her based on what he’d heard about her around the school (this was the case for most of the presents). Many people had considered her the prettiest girl in their class, so he had decided to go with that to decide which of the forty one items he’d give to her. He fished a small jewellery box out of the bag. Her present had been too small to wrap.

Kazuo knocked on the door. He heard the barks of a dog inside.

Takako appeared at the door several seconds later. Upon seeing Kazuo, she stepped back, just as Kazuhiko had done. Kazuo sighed to himself, wondering if everyone was going to do this.

“Kiriyama?” Takako frowned. “What are you doing at my house?”

“Merry Christmas,” Kazuo said, as if that would answer the question. He handed her the box.

Takako looked at him as if he had three heads, but accepted the present, the jewellery box having appealed to her. She wondered if this was some sort of joke, but curiosity got the better of her and she opened the lid. Upon seeing no jewellery, her face fell slightly – was it actually some stupid prank? Why the hell would Kazuo Kiriyama be interested in pranking _her?_

“There’s something in there,” Kazuo said upon seeing her annoyed expression. Takako eventually pulled out a piece of paper.

“How do you know where I live?” Takako asked him as she unfolded the small piece of paper. She wasn’t going to thank him yet, or maybe not even at all.

“I know these things,” Kazuo simply said.

“You aren’t gonna tell anyone, right?” Takako asked. It had nothing to do with her house or the area where she lived, it was more the thought of a creep like Kazushi Niida finding out where she lived and constantly bothering her. That was one of her worst nightmares.

“Why would I?” Kazuo questioned. He looked at the paper in her hands. “Go on, take a look at it.” Why were everyone so hesitant to open their presents? At this rate, he’d be walking around all night if the rest of his classmates were like this.

Takako looked down at the paper. It was a coupon for her favourite spa, offering a free facial. She actually gave Kazuo a slight smile, though she was wondering how he knew this about her. She told herself not to worry about it, and just enjoy it. Kazuo Kiriyama actually seemed to have a bit of a heart, after all. Who knew?

“It’s nice to get something I can actually use,” Takako gave him a slightly wider smile. Kazuo just nodded, and turned to leave.

Takako went back inside, and took another look at the coupon. She read over the whole thing again and it all seemed fine, until she got to the fine print. She read it over several times to make sure she had seen it correctly – and yes, she had. The coupon was out of date – by three years!

“Kiriyama, come back!” Takako shouted, opening the door again. “It’s out of date!”

Kazuo was gone.

 “Asshole.”

She ripped up the coupon and threw it in the garbage.

**_Haruka Tanizawa & Yukie Utsumi_ **

Haruka and Yukie’s families had celebrated Christmas together for four years now. The tradition was Haruka’s favourite part of Christmas. For the past two years, the two had made the Christmas dinner together, which gave them a lot of time to talk amongst one another, something they didn’t get to do much with all of their other friends around then most of the time. They spoke about anything and everything – _almost._ Christmas with Yukie had been bittersweet for the last two years. Haruka had told herself that by the time next Christmas came around, she would have tried to explain to Yukie how she felt about her… and every year it was still exactly the same.

“I’m starving,” Yukie mumbled, pulling Haruka from her thoughts. The two sat in the kitchen together, the smell of Christmas dinner filling the house. Haruka was hungry as well, and tried to pin that to the feeling in her stomach, instead of the thoughts swirling around in her head.

“Me too, but we have to wait for your aunt to get here before we eat,” Haruka shrugged. “Heard from her?”

“A few minutes ago,” Yukie said. “She said she’d be here really soon.” Haruka nodded, and shot her a smile.

At that moment, the doorbell rang. Both Haruka and Yukie just about jumped out of their chairs, calling out to their families that they’d get the door. They rushed to open it.

“Merry Christmas!” Haruka and Yukie said in unison, expecting to see Yukie’s aunt standing there. Instead, they saw Kazuo Kiriyama’s blank face staring back at them.

“Take these,” Kazuo said, not returning the greeting. He placed a package in each of their hands.

Yukie and Haruka’s eyes widened, looking down at the packages. Was it some kind of joke? Still, they decided to open them, knowing it wouldn’t really be wise to be rude to Kazuo Kiriyama. They’d heard a lot of things about him and his gang around school, but they’d never done anything to her group. Hell, once Ryuhei was harassing Izumi for something, and Mitsuru had told him to shut the fuck up and move on.

Reluctantly, he had done it.

Yukie opened her present first. It was a box of aspirin. Kazuo had put that in his bag towards the end, when he had just given up and taken whatever he could find in his bathroom cabinet to use as a gift. Yukie tried to smile, but found it increasingly difficult, especially when she saw that the aspirin was out of date. She knew that as soon as she got back inside, she’d get rid of it.

“Enjoy your present,” was all Kazuo said in response to her confused facial expression. _She’s smiling on the inside,_ he told himself.

Haruka opened her present next. It was a punctured volleyball. Kazuo had remembered vaguely she was an attacker on the school volleyball team, and had just decided to go with it.

“I should go now,” Kazuo said. “I still have a lot of houses to get to.”

Haruka and Yukie watched as he left, looking down at their presents. This, without a doubt, was one of the weirdest things that had happened this year by a mile.

**_Kayoko Kotohiki_ **

Kazuo was grateful that Kayoko was outside her house when he came to deliver her gift, as he was starting to get sick of the whole, come to the door, knock, then get a confused look for five or so minutes before they finally opened their gift. She was shovelling snow off of the driveway, waiting for her parents to come home from work. He fished out a bulky-looking present from his bag and carefully tucked it under his arm. It had been rather hard to wrap, so he hoped she would at least show _some_ gratitude.

He cleared his throat, watching as she jumped slightly, dropping the shovel on the ground. Upon seeing him, she gave him the same surprised look everyone else had.

“K-Kiriyama…” Kayoko mumbled, reaching down to pick up the shovel. “C-c-can I help you?”

“Merry Christmas,” Kazuo said, handing her the present. This was enough of a shock to make Kayoko drop the shovel again. This time, she didn’t move to pick it up, and instead reached for the gift.

Carefully, she unwrapped the present, frowning. Usually she was quite good at guessing presents, but the odd shape of the package had completely thrown it off. Knowing how odd Kazuo was, she figured it could be anything… she just hoped it would be something useful.

Kayoko pulled off the wrapping paper, letting it fall onto the snow below, revealing… a dead houseplant. When thinking of what he could give her, Kazuo remembered a time where Kayoko had attempted to start a gardening club (an idea that his gang had loudly proclaimed was lame), and decided that it would do.

“Thank you, Kiriyama,” Kayoko said shakily, bringing the plant up to her face to inspect it. “I think it’s seen better days, though.”

“I know,” Kazuo said. The plant had died after his staff had left for the Christmas holidays, and he hadn’t bothered to get rid of it. Since it had been bothering him for a week, he had decided it would do as a present. Better than leaving it there until the staff returned.

“It’s not even dying… it’s dead. There’s no saving it,” Kayoko said sadly, looking down at the crunchy brown leaves of the dead plant. Kazuo sighed. She was sad – weren’t people supposed to like gifts? It had taken so long to wrap, too…

“Enjoy your plant,” Kazuo nodded, turning to leave.

“But it’s dead,” Kayoko mumbled.

“Just enjoy your plant.”

**_Yuichiro Takiguchi_ **

When Yuichiro opened the door to see Kazuo standing in front of him, he didn’t panic like other members of his class had. He decided to give him a chance. After all, it was Christmas, and strange things were known to happen during the season.

Kazuo didn’t give him time to speak, not wanting to go through the whole ‘why are you here’ charade again, and instead handed him a present. Yuichiro looked at it curiously, noting that it was quite light and rectangle-shaped, but nothing significant sprung to mind. It was too light to be a video game, film or a book. Frowning, he began to tear off the paper.

“Yuichiro! Who was at the door?” a woman’s voice called from inside the house. A woman in her early forties appeared at the doorway, holding a tin of cookies.

“Just someone from school,” Yuichiro mumbled. “It’s nothing, mom.”

“Nonsense! You never have friends come around!” his mother smiled at Kazuo. She opened the tin of cookies and reached it out to Kazuo.

Kazuo was going to say no, but they did look rather nice, and he was slightly hungry. He took two biscuits and cautiously bit into one. It was decent, and would do for now.

“T-thank you, mom, but-“ Yuichiro began, beginning to get rather embarrassed.

“I got your cookies ready, as well. You were going to go and give them to that girl-“ his mother was quickly cut off. Yuichiro made a move to shut the door.

“Uh… thank you for the present, Kiriyama! I’ll see you at school!” Yuichiro called out, just about shutting the door in Kazuo’s face. His mother looked at him as if he was crazy.

Yuichiro sighed and opened the present to distract himself from his mother’s questions. It was a postcard… addressed to Kazuo, from several years ago. He frowned, and opened the door, wondering if Kazuo had gotten the gift mixed up, but Kazuo was gone.

He decided to hang up the postcard in his room. It felt weird, as it wasn’t his, but the picture was nice.

**_Yoshio Akamatsu_ **

“Yoshio, there’s a friend at the door for you!”

As soon as he heard the sound of his father’s voice from downstairs, Yoshio was confused, but not wanting to be rude, he paused his game and went down to see who it was. He didn’t really have any friends in his class, and he couldn’t think of anyone who would come out on Christmas Eve to see him. His family lived on the other side of the country, and he wasn’t going to see them again until New Year’s. It was a complete mystery.

He was slightly hopeful when he walked down to the door, wondering if that by some sort of Christmas miracle, someone had come to see him. Yoshio even had a smile on his face when he came to the door. However, when he saw Kazuo Kiriyama standing there, his smile immediately faded.

It had to be a joke. Anxiety filled his stomach. Was Ryuhei, the boy whom made school absolutely torturous day in and day out, hiding in his family’s front garden somewhere?

“Merry Christmas, Akamatsu,” Kazuo gave him a nod. At least some things were the same – he still sounded as emotionless as usual. He handed Yoshio a present.

Yoshio took the present, gripping it tightly. It was rectangular and shape, and slightly heavy. He wondered with dread what would be inside. Why had Ryuhei gone to such an effort to embarrass him? Didn’t have his own family to spend time with on Christmas? He’d orchestrated a pretty bad prank, though, when he thought about it. Kazuo never cared when he bothered Yoshio. Him showing up at the door had been the first red flag.

He wasn’t going to fall for it.

At least, not until Kazuo looked down at his watch and told him he was already running behind schedule, and if he stalled any longer he would probably be giving out gifts until midnight, thank you very much.

With shaking hands, Yoshio torn off the paper. He waited for laughter to come from outside. The present was a book, bright blue in colour. He turned it over, and the title of it stared back at him in bright yellow letters ‘101 HEALTHY RECIPES THAT ARE THE GATEWAY TO EXCELLENT WEIGHT LOSS.’

Yeah, it was a joke.

Yoshio went back inside, shutting the door as quickly as possible. Kazuo frowned. _That was quite rude._

**_Hiroshi Kuronaga, Sho Tsukioka, Mitsuru Numai & Ryuhei Sasagawa _ **

The Kiriyama family’s clubhouse was the next place on the list. Hiroshi and Ryuhei had, for once in their lives, agreed on something with the name. Mitsuru had said they should call it a lair. Sho had called both names stupid and had asked Kazuo what he thought on the topic, but he had just shrugged and the naming dispute had continued on. Kazuo had bigger things do focus on than the name of the place.

Kazuo pulled out his key and let himself inside. It was situated in a rather nice building, and Kazuo didn’t know how they could still afford it (they couldn’t – they were months behind on rent, and it was in an absolute miracle they hadn’t been evicted yet). A dead Christmas tree sat in the corner, with sparkly pink decorations on it (courtesy of Sho), and lights thrown around it which didn’t work. Ryuhei sat in an armchair beside the disaster of a tree, and Hiroshi, Sho and Mitsuru sat in flowery pink chairs by the small table in the room, drinks in hands.

“Good evening, Boss,” Mitsuru greeted him, looking up from his phone.

“Is it true?” Sho asked, skipping the introduction. When it came to gossip floating around, Sho had no time for pleasantries. He held up his phone. “That you’ve been going around handing around presents to our classmates?”

“Yes,” Kazuo said flatly. He began to get their presents out of the bag. So far, most of the messages in the class group chat had been complaints, but if anyone in Class 3-B was going to get a good present, it would be a member of the Kiriyama family.

“That’s pretty lame, Boss,” Ryuhei snorted. Mitsuru picked up a drink coaster off the table, and flung it at his head.

“Shut up!” Mitsuru yelled at him. Sho smirked in his direction. Mitsuru was almost _ridiculously_ defensive of Kazuo.

“I came by to deliver your presents,” Kazuo said. He handed a gift to Hiroshi. Everyone, including Hiroshi himself, looked surprised that he had gotten the first gift.

Hiroshi mumbled a barely intelligible ‘thank you,’ and began to tear the fancy Christmas wrapping paper. Everyone gave him daggers, but Ryuhei seemed the angriest for some reason. What had fucking _Hiroshi_ done to be worthy of getting the first gift from the Boss? No one liked Hiroshi. Sometimes it even seemed like Kazuo forgot about Hiroshi’s existence.

The wrapping paper fell to the floor, and the others peered over to see what Hiroshi was holding – a pack of makeup wipes. Ryuhei began to snort with laughter, slipping out of his chair. Sho rolled his eyes and poured himself another drink. Mitsuru just sighed – it was Hiroshi, of course he’d get an awful present. Their presents would be different.

“I guess I can find a use for these,” Hiroshi mumbled, awkwardly holding the makeup wipes. Ryuhei was still laughing.

Kazuo went over to Sho next. He gave him a smile as he took the present from Kazuo, shooting a rather smug smile at the rest of the group. Mitsuru was starting to get mad – _Sho_ got the next present?!

“Thank you, Kazuo-kun,” Sho gave him a wink. As expected by the other members of the gang, Kazuo did not respond to this whatsoever.

Sho was careful when ripping off the paper – it was really nice and looked expensive, so he didn’t want to ruin it. When Mitsuru told him to hurry the fuck up, he made sure to take even more time to open it. Eventually, he did open it, and pulled out a grey t-shirt. When he unfolded the shirt, he saw that it was slightly glittery, but the glitter had disappeared over time.

It was ugly, incredibly ugly. He would never wear the shirt in a million years. He’d keep it for sure, as it was a gift from Kazuo, but in the depths of his closet, where he’d be sure no one would find it.

“It’s the thought that counts, with presents,” Sho said, plastering a smile on his face.

Kazuo didn’t acknowledge him, and instead went over to Mitsuru. He took the present and ripped it open within seconds. Imagine how funny it was going to be when he was the only one who got a decent present, and was recognised for all his hard work…

He pulled out a pot of hair gel. It was a disappointment, but it wasn’t a _bad_ gift really. He needed some more hair gel. He unscrewed the lid of the pot, only to find it empty.

Ryuhei found this fact absolutely hilarious. Hiroshi and Sho joined in with the laughing.

“Oh,” Kazuo looked at him. “I forgot it was empty.”

Mitsuru hoped for a moment that Kazuo would offer to buy him a new pot of hair gel as a replacement, but the offer didn’t come. Instead, Kazuo just went over to Ryuhei, who was now standing by the table on his phone, scrolling through the class group chat. He was only in it for the entertainment it provided – he could bully people in it, everyone ganged up on Kazushi, and Shinji made some pretty good memes. Ryuhei took the present, but didn’t open it immediately.

“I have to say, Boss,” Ryuhei said as he began to tear the paper. He was already hysterically laughing. “Giving Yoshio that weight loss book was fucking hilario-“

When Ryuhei saw his present, he completely stopped. Underneath a pair of sock that did not match was a self-help book, called ‘How To Sort Your Life Out For Dummies.’

Everyone, but Kazuo of course, laughed, Hiroshi the loudest of all.

“Oh my god, Ryuhei, _that_ is fucking hilarious!” Hiroshi wheezed. Ryuhei grabbed the book, and whacked him in the head with it.

In response, Hiroshi shoved Ryuhei into the table. The force of him hitting it spilled Sho’s drink, breaking the glass, and spilling the drink over the chairs and the shirt Kazuo had given him.

Sho’s face went bright red in absolute fury.

“BOTH OF YOU. GET. THE. FUCK. OUT. NOW,” Sho shouted at Hiroshi and Ryuhei, eyes locked on the stained chairs and shirt. When neither of them made a move, he chased them out of the clubhouse.

Mitsuru and Kazuo watched as Sho stormed after them, lecturing them.

“So… any plans for Christmas?” Mitsuru asked Kazuo casually. Kazuo didn’t respond, instead cleaning up the mess. They could hear Sho yelling at Hiroshi and Ryuhei outside.

“IS THAT ALL YOU CAN SAY FOR YOURSELF? YOU RUINED MY NEW CHAIRS – THOSE STAINS ARE NOT GOING TO COME OUT. AND-“ Sho screamed at the two. By this point, the yelling had been going on for about ten minutes.

“It’s Hiroshi’s fault. Don’t yell at me!” Ryuhei yelled back at Sho. Hiroshi elbowed Ryuhei in the side, him pushing him to the ground.

“It’s your fault,” Hiroshi said, trying to get up. “You hit me over the head with the book!”

“YOU BOTH ARE TO BLAME. I TRY SO HARD TO MAKE THIS PLACE NICE, WITH MY EXCELLENT INTERIOR DESIGN SKILLS, AND IT JUST GETS RUINED. DO YOU KNOW HOW LONG IT TOOK ME TO FIND THOSE PINK GLASSES? DO YOU?” Sho shouted. “AND THE SHIRT. YOU STAINED THE SHIRT.”

“You didn’t even like the shirt!” Ryuhei countered.

“That’s not the point,” Sho’s voice was softer now, kind of sounding sad. “It was a gift from Kazuo-kun, that’s the _point.”_

Kazuo stepped away from the window, where he could see and hear every detail of the fight. He decided to leave. He left without bothering to say goodbye to Mitsuru.

**_Mizuho Inada_ **

Mizuho watched Kazuo walk down the street, bag over his shoulder. She wasn’t too sure what had just happened, but it had been awfully strange. He had come to the door and given her a present, which had ended up being a box of vegetables. It wasn’t the best present she could have received, but it wasn’t the worst either. At least the colours were pretty…

“Who was that?” Mizuho’s mother asked when she walked back inside.

“Someone from school, no one important,” Mizuho said, holding the large box of vegetables. “He gave me these.”

While it seemed like a bit of a strange gift, Mizuho’s mother still tried to smile, reaching out to take the box.

“Oh… at least we can use them in cooking, right?”

As soon as Mizuho’s mother put a hand on the box, Mizuho jerked back.

“NO!” Mizuho shouted. “I’m going to put them by my Ahura Mazda shrine, as an offering to the gods!”

Mizuho rushed upstairs, her mother watching with a confused expression. It would definitely not be the first time she had a serious concern over her daughter’s mental health.

 

The next morning, Mizuho ran over to her Ahura Mazda shrine in shock. The vegetables were gone!

At breakfast, Mizuho’s mother managed a smile as she spoke excitedly about the disappearance of her offering. She’d have to grow out of this eventually, right?

All she could do was hope Mizuho wouldn’t check the rubbish bin that day.

**_Tadakatsu Hatagatmi_ **

Tadakatsu had wanted to open the present from Kazuo yesterday, as it was probably going to be garbage anyway, judging by what people had said about their gifts in the class group chat the night before. However, his mother, a stickler for tradition, had promptly placed the gift under the tree, thanked Kazuo for coming, and then went back to their Christmas dinner.

He almost didn’t want to open it, but he did. He opened it first, just to get it over with.

It was a Flip Side CD. He felt like he had been completely insulted.

Not caring at all that pretty much his entire family was there, Tadakatsu smashed the CD to smithereens.

**_Yumiko Kusaka and Yukiko Kitano_ **

Since Yumiko and Yukiko did just about everything together, it made perfect sense that they celebrated Christmas together too. It was their favourite time of year. They loved to buy matching ugly Christmas sweaters, spend Christmas Eve baking cookies, and make the occasional snowman. Seriously, who couldn’t enjoy Christmas?

Their favourite part of Christmas would come the next day, when they spent the day with their church, participating in their traditional celebrations. Their families didn’t exactly like them not spending the holidays with them, but once they saw how happy they were when the time came around, they always let them go.

The only person who they could think of that literally _couldn’t_ enjoy Christmas was Kazuo Kiriyama, due to his inability to feel any emotion if the rumours were true (they both believed, making their judgement based on his behaviour). Due to this fact, neither one of them ever expected that when the doorbell rang, Kazuo would be standing there in front of them.

If they had been one to check the class group chat, they would have known about Kazuo’s gift giving spree, but they had both muted it a long time ago. It seemed too rude to just leave it altogether, but they just preferred to talk amongst themselves.

“O-oh, Kiriyama,” Yumiko managed a small smile. “Merry Christmas.”

“Do you need anything?” Yukiko smiled. She was willing to given Kazuo a chance, as it _was_ Christmas time.

“No,” Kazuo said, and pulled a cardboard box out of the bag he was holding, handing it to Yumiko. After that, he pulled out a wrapped present and handed it to Yukiko. “Go ahead, open them.”

The two nodded. Yukiko went first, and Yumiko smiled slightly as she watched her open the gift. Yukiko tore off the wrapping paper and looked down to see a folder in her hands. Inside, were photos of Shuya… that were incredibly blurry and probably rejects sent into the school newspaper. Kazuo had meant to throw them in the garbage after he had picked them up in the hallway, but never got around to it. It seemed like at times that every girl in the class had a crush on Shuya, so he figured there was a high chance the photos would end up in the hands of a girl that liked him. They probably wouldn’t mind. From what Kazuo could perceive, people seemed to get dumber when they liked someone.

“Oh… thanks,” Yukiko tried to be polite. She tucked the photographs into the pocket of her Christmas sweater.

Yumiko opened the cardboard box… to find it empty.

“It’s empty,” Yumiko mumbled, wondering if there had been a mistake. She didn’t want to seem ungrateful, but she just had to ask.

“Yes, it is empty. It’s a versatile gift. You can put whatever you want in the box,” Kazuo nodded at them. “For instance, you could put Kitano’s photographs of Nanahara in it.”

Yumiko and Yukiko looked at one another, and nodded. Yukiko took the photographs from her pocket, and placed them in the box, as per Kazuo’s suggestion.

“Thank you, Kiriyama,” Yukiko smiled at him. “We really appreciate the gifts.”

“I’m going now,” Kazuo simply said, and began to walk back down the driveway. Yumiko and Yukiko gave him a smile and a wave, then went back inside.

**_Satomi Noda_ **

“How do you know where I live?” was the first question Satomi had for Kazuo when he showed up at her door.

She hadn’t known he was coming, as she hadn’t looked at the group chat since that morning. For the rest of the day, she’d been busy preparing for her family’s arrival in the evening and doing some studying, as even though it was Christmas, she thought it would still be good to go over her notes. Satomi was hoping to beat Kyoichi in the next exams they had after the break. He wasn’t top of the class – Kazuo usually got top marks in exams, but Satomi knew she nor Kyoichi could beat him.

“I acquired the knowledge of my classmates’ residences over time,” Kazuo shrugged. Satomi raised an eyebrow, but decided not to comment. While it was incredibly creepy, it kind of made sense. It seemed like Kazuo knew almost everything there was to know.

“What do you need?” Satomi said, anxious to get back to studying. She hoped to squeeze in a little more revision before her parents arrived home from picking up her relatives.

“I have a present,” Kazuo said, handing her a box similar to the one he had given Takako earlier. Reluctantly, Satomi took it.

Satomi opened the box, and pulled out a folded piece of paper.

“A coupon,” she said, beginning to read what it was for. “Go to two Anger Management sessions, get the third session free… expires the 25th July next year... I think you got the wrong person, Kiriyama.”

“No, I wrote on my list it was for you,” Kazuo said confidently. He didn’t make mistakes as stupid as mixing up presents.

“I really don’t think it’s for me… I mean… I can’t remember the last time I got angry,” Satomi said, taking an awkward look down at the coupon.

“Really?” Kazuo said, thinking back to the reason he’d decided Satomi would be the one to get the coupon. “I overheard Utsumi talking to Tanizawa when they were walking to a volleyball practice. Utsumi said she was worried about you, as you always seem to fly off the handle quickly.”

Satomi’s face darkened. She clenched her fist, the coupon crumpling in her hand.

“I _do not_ fly off the handle quickly!” Satomi yelled. Kazuo looked at her, and sighed.

“You are in denial, Noda. It appears you really do need the coupon,” Kazuo said.

“I do not-“

“You do, Noda. Look at how quickly you flew off the handle.”

“I DO NOT NEED THE COUPON!”

Kazuo sighed, and decided to leave.

Some people could just _not_ be helped, it seemed.

**_Mitsuko Souma_ **

When Kazuo had knocked on Mitsuko’s front door, she had yelled at him to go away. He wasn’t going to go away easily – he had set out to give everyone a present, and he was going to complete this task to the best of his ability. He waited for about a minute to see if she would change her mind and come to the door, but she didn’t. Not one to just give up, Kazuo began to kick the door.

“Did you _hear what I said?_ Go away!” Mitsuko yelled again.

Kazuo sighed. He didn’t exactly like Mitsuko that much, so he could just go, or throw her present through one of her windows. He kicked the door again, kicking it until it started to shake.

“Fucking Christ! Fine. I’m coming,” Mitsuko growled, finally giving up.

 Kazuo stepped back, and waited for her to appear at the door. When she did, he immediately noticed that she looked as if she was going through just a normal day. She wasn’t wearing anything Christmas-related, and from what he could see from the doorway, there seemed to be no Christmas decorations in her house. He had noticed an inflatable Santa sprawled across her front yard, but it looked incredibly out of place. He came to the conclusion that the wind had deposited it there, or she’d caved in slightly to the celebrations and put it out there at the last minute.

It was most likely the former.

“Here,” Kazuo said, passing her the only present that was wrapped badly. He decided she wasn’t worth a ‘Merry Christmas.’

“Finally, you’ve come around with one of your shitty gifts. What an honour,” Mitsuko said sarcastically, examining the present.

“Just open it, Souma,” Kazuo said, already wanting to leave.

Mitsuko rolled her eyes and tore the paper off. It was the first and only present she figured she’d receive that Christmas. She let the paper fall to the ground and she looked down at what she held in her hands – some sort of beauty mask. Kazuo had put minimal thought into her present (it was a miracle she hadn’t ended up with a leaf off his driveway), and had only given her it because he couldn’t think of anything better.

She looked… unimpressed. Kazuo was surprised – he’d always thought of her as quite a vain girl. Weren’t they meant to like this stuff?

“Are you saying…” Mitsuko began, in some sort of state of belief, “that I am not beautiful already?”

“N-“ Kazuo began, but was immediately cut off.

“You are, aren’t you?” Mitsuko said through gritted teeth. She threw it back at him, and the jar shattered at Kazuo’s feet.

Without another word, she went back inside and slammed the door.

Kazuo stepped over the mess and went to leave, hearing mutterings on the street. He looked over into the middle of the road to see that sometime during his exchange, the Kiriyama family had managed to catch up with him.

Sho was sitting in front of someone’s rose bush, looking completely unamused. He passed a cigarette to Mitsuru, who was slouched on the curb. Both of them were looking at Ryuhei and Hiroshi in the middle of the street, having now been fighting for well over an hour… still about who was the real reason why Sho’s chairs were stained. It had also half-descended into a fight over something else, but Mitsuru and Sho had deemed it too stupid to remember the reason.

“What are you all doing here?” Kazuo asked, walking over to Sho and Mitsuru. He ignored Ryuhei punching Hiroshi behind him.

“We got bored, and decided to find you,” Sho said, lighting another cigarette. “Thought you might want some company.”

“I’m all right on my own, thank you very much, but I suppose in light of the holiday mood I can allow you all to tag along with me,” Kazuo said. Mitsuru’s face lit up.

“Thank you for your gratitude, Boss,” Mitsuru said. Kazuo just shrugged.

“As long as you all stay in the bushes, while I deliver the gifts, I don’t mind,” Kazuo said. Mitsuru immediately nodded.

Kazuo, Sho and Mitsuru watched as Hiroshi and Ryuhei continued to yell at each other, moving onto completely beating the shit out of one another. No one intervened. Kazuo just stared, waiting for them to be finished so they could move on, and Sho passed Mitsuru another cigarette, both of them needing a distraction from the utter train-wreck unfolding in front of them.

Hiroshi and Ryuhei only stopped fighting when they heard a door across the road slam open. Mitsuko had come out of her house.

“Can all of you SHUT THE FUCK UP AND GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY STREET?” Mitsuko yelled at them. Ryuhei gave Hiroshi one final push and then stepped away from him. Sheepishly, Hiroshi got up.

They were ready to move on, hoping Mitsuko would go back inside, when she caught sight of the inflatable Santa that had blown onto her lawn.

“I thought I told them to keep the Santa OFF MY FUCKING LAWN!”

Kazuo and his gang watched Mitsuko walk over to the Santa. He expected her to throw it across the street where it belonged, but instead, he watched as Mitsuko went right up to the Santa, and began to stomp on it.

“NO!” Ryuhei screamed. He ran to stop her, but Hiroshi held him back. Fearing how badly it could turn out if he got himself free, Mitsuru went over and helped. Sho just sat back and watched with Kazuo, both of them sharing blank looks on their faces.

One of the Santa’s eyes popped out after several minutes of stomping. Every now and then, the Santa, which had a speaking feature, would mumble one of its sayings, the speaking getting fainter and fainter, both due to the Santa’s condition continuing to worsen, and Ryuhei’s hysterical screaming. Eventually, Mitsuko ripped its stomach open with her shoe, and that was the end.

However, Santa still had one final war cry left in him.

“Ho, ho, ho! Merry ChristmAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-“

Then it it was silent. Well, almost silent, if it hadn’t been for Ryuhei’s sobbing. Mitsuko kicked the Santa into the road, a smile on her face, and then went back inside.

Ryuhei got up, and cradled the Santa in his arms, tears rolling down his face.

“CONGRATULATIONS SOUMA, YOU RUINED CHRISTMAS!”

**_Yoshimi Yahagi_ **

Kazuo and his gang had eventually moved on after the incident at Mitsuko’s house. Mitsuru walked beside Kazuo, having promised to hide in the bushes as soon as they got to the next house. Hiroshi walked behind them, and trailing behind the three were Sho and Ryuhei. Ryuhei had been to upset to walk and had insisted Sho carry him, which had slowed him down enough already. This was made worse by the fact that Ryuhei had insisted they bring the corpse of inflatable Santa with them too.

“Keeping up back there?” Hiroshi turned back to laugh at Sho.

“You know, nothing’s changed, Hiroshi. We all still greatly dislike you, but just for now, Ryuhei has taken the spotlight,” Sho said, trying to walk slightly faster. It was impossible.

“Yeah, Hiroshi. No one likes you,” Ryuhei laughed, taking a ten second break from sobbing.

“Please shut up,” Sho snapped at him. He’d had enough of Ryuhei to last him the rest of the school year, or maybe the rest of his life in general.

Other than his sniffling, Ryuhei was pretty much silent, them arriving to the next house. As promised, the Kiriyama family went to hide, but the person next on the list, Yoshimi, had already seen them. She was sitting outside her house in the snow, lightly shivering, but she looked at if she couldn’t be happier.

“Why on Earth are you sitting in the snow dressed like that, Yahagi?” Kazuo asked as he walked up to her. She just gave him a smile.

“I was waiting for you, Kiriyama. I heard you were giving presents to everyone. I thought I’d wait outside for you,” Yoshimi smiled, standing up slowly. She’d been outside for about half an hour now.

Kazuo just sighed, knowing he could probably never understand her reasoning as to why she had decided to stay and wait for him outside, and just handed her the present. She smiled and took it, shaking it to see if she could figure out what was inside, and taking some time to examine the fancy wrapping paper. Before opening it, she looked over at Kazuo again, seeing the Kiriyama family badly hiding in the bushes behind him. The inflatable Santa was draped over everyone. Somewhere along the way since Mitsuko had kicked the shit out of it, one of its limbs had fallen off.

“Oh, your friends are here too,” Yoshimi smiled slightly. “That’s cute. It’s like they’re your little elves.”

The Kiriyama family glared at Yoshimi through the foliage. They were not _cute._

“Open the present, Yahagi,” Kazuo sighed. “We have to move on.”

Yoshimi opened the present carefully, holding a set of lipsticks in her hands. She smiled and even let out a squeal, and went to open one to see the colour. It was broken. _That’s okay,_ she said to herself. _The others are probably okay…_

Every single lipstick was broken. Upon seeing Yoshimi’s face fall, Kazuo thought back to something he had heard several hours ago from Sho.

“It’s the thought that counts, with presents,” Kazuo nodded. In the bushes, Sho just about died.

“He remembered what I said! _He remembered what I said!”_

Mitsuru shot him a death glare.

**_Keita Iijima_ **

By the time that they got to the next house, which was Keita’s, Sho’s whole body was aching from carrying Ryuhei. Ryuhei had stopped crying about ten minutes after leaving Yoshimi’s place, but still insisted that he was too sad to walk. At that point, Sho had been ready to throw Ryuhei and the inflatable Santa’s corpse down into the middle of the street again, but he knew he would just start weeping again. No one ever wanted to hear his weeping again, purely because of how annoying it was.

“Can you take Ryuhei?” Sho said in between deep breaths to Hiroshi. He knew he probably wouldn’t, but he still asked anyway. He couldn’t take it anymore.

Hiroshi laughed and shook is head, walking faster to leave Sho trailing even further behind. Next, he asked Mitsuru, who shook his head too. _Of course he wouldn’t,_ Sho said bitterly, _can’t give up the spot walking next to his Boss…_

They watched Kazuo knock on Keita’s door. There were no real bushes to hide in, so they decided to just stay a fair distance away from his house, waiting until Kazuo was done. It was a plan he seemed to be fine with.

“Hey, you can put Ryuhei in this, if you don’t want to carry him anymore,” Hiroshi suddenly said. Sho looked over to see him wheeling over an old, rusty shopping cart.

Immediately, Sho dumped Ryuhei in the shopping cart, along with the corpse of the inflatable Santa. Letting out a sigh of relief, Sho sat down on the curb and lit a cigarette, looking over at Kazuo at Keita’s door.

“It… it’s broken,” Keita mumbled, looking down at the present in his hands. It was an alarm clock.

“You have the internet, don’t you? You can learn how to fix it,” Kazuo simply nodded, and then turned away.

Keita looked back down at the broken alarm clock sadly, but reminded himself it could have been a lot worse.

**_Yoji Kuramoto_ **

When Kazuo went up to Yoji’s door, him the next classmate on the list, Sho, Mitsuru and Hiroshi crouched down in the bushes. Since it was impossible to hide the shopping cart containing Ryuhei and the dead inflatable Santa, they had stuffed the cart behind a tree and hoped for the best.

The Kiriyama family watched as Yoji opened the door, and Kazuo handed him the gift. He didn’t bother saying Merry Christmas – he’d gotten tired of the saying several hours ago. Yoji opened the present, revealing a plain white t-shirt that he unfolded and held up. Sho craned his neck to take a look at it, wondering that if somehow, an idiot like Yoji got a better shirt that he did.

The shirt read, in large black letters ‘FOREVER ALONE.’

Sho was about to let out a loud laugh, but Mitsuru quickly covered his mouth. He wasn’t going to let anyone disappoint the Boss.

“Um, Kiriyama?” Yoji crumpled up the shirt and gave him a confused look. “I think you gave me the wrong present. I have a girlfriend. Y’know, Yoshimi Yahagi? In our class…” _This shirt would be more fitting for someone like Kazushi,_ he thought of saying, but decided to keep his mouth shut.

“I am aware,” Kazuo said. “One of my sources is predicting you two will break up promptly, so I decided the shirt would make a good preparation for the event.”

Sho, of course, was this source. Once he had started hanging out with Yoshimi, he had realised she deserved a hundred percent better, and was constantly trying to convince her to break up with Yoji. He was trying to work on finding an eligible bachelor to replace him, but it was getting quite difficult. Either Sho found the potential bachelor too attractive himself to introduce to Yoshimi, or he found out something about them that was a dealbreaker.

He could barely contain his excitement. Kazuo had noticed something he had said _again_ , all in the course of an hour, and Yoji had been humiliated.

“I think you should leave,” Yoji said, face darkening. He slammed the door in Kazuo’s face. Kazuo stepped away, wondering what he did – didn’t people like honesty?

The Kiriyama family climbed out of the bushes. Mitsuru shoved Sho back, saying that the shove was for almost giving them away in the bushes. Sho felt himself hit something hard, which quickly disappeared. He managed to stop himself from toppling over and turned around to see if he could figure out what it was.

Ryuhei in the shopping cart had rolled away from the group, and he was now speeding down the street, screaming bloody murder.

Kazuo and the remaining members of the Kiriyama family watched the cart disappear from view, before he gently nudged Mitsuru.

“You and the others should go find him.”

Mitsuru nodded, not one to defy an order from the Boss. Reluctantly, Sho and Hiroshi followed him. It was only a shopping cart. It couldn’t have gone too far…

**_Shinji Mimura_ **

Shinji had definitely not been the first to receive one of Kazuo’s presents, which were now becoming rather infamous in the class group chat. His hadn’t been as bad as some others had been – it definitely wasn’t a Forever Alone shirt or a box of out of date aspirin, just a child’s computer game. He was kind of wishing he had gotten something really terrible, so he could make memes out of it.

The class meme was getting rather old. Hirono had been dismissed from her class meme duties after Kazushi had slipped and fallen in front of pretty much the whole class into the snow. The first week of this had been amusing, with remixes being made and countless jokes being cracked, but now the meme was pretty much dead. They needed a new one, and fast, but there was no material.

His phone began to ping. Messages were coming from the class group chat.

**Mitsuru Numai:** If anyone sees an out of control shopping cart, Ryuhei, or a dead inflatable Santa, please private message myself, Sho, or Hiroshi.

**Yukie Utsumi:** Will do. Hope everything is okay J

**Hirono Shimizu:** There’s a story behind this that I think is kind of necessary to know  

**Mitsuru Numai:** A story that’s none of your business.

Shinji sighed when the group chat seemed to die after that. His family had work to do tonight, so he was spending Christmas Eve on his own. Yutaka had invited him over to spend Christmas with his family, but had to cancel this invitation after he found out there was no room, as this year, his bratty cousins were coming. Shinji really felt for him, and was waiting for the texts to start coming in once they arrived.

He looked down at the computer game, and sighed. He had nothing else to do tonight, so he decided, while incredibly embarrassed with himself, to install the game on his computer.

Shinji loaded up the game, and began to play it. It was rather easy, as it was for little kids, but it was also… fun too. He would never admit that he actually played it, or enjoyed it.

Within an hour, Shinji had gotten to the final level of the game. At first, it looked easy. Then, he lost.

Shinji tried again. And again. And again, but still, he lost.

“Damn Kiriyama,” Shinji muttered as he tried to beat the game for the twelfth time. “I’m addicted…”

**_Yuka Nakagawa_ **

When Kazuo began to walk up Yuka’s driveway, Mitsuru, Hiroshi and Sho ran up to him. They were adamant that Ryuhei had vanished. They couldn’t even hear him screaming anymore. Mitsuru had expected Kazuo to get mad at them for failing the task he had set for them, but he just shrugged, and told them to get into the bushes.

It was just _Ryuhei_ who was missing after all.

The Kiriyama shuffled into the bushes, it a lot easier to have confidence in their hiding skills now that they didn’t have to worry about the shopping cart and dead inflatable Santa they’d been forced to carry around. Kazuo nodded at them and knocked on Yuka’s door, waiting. In the bushes, Hiroshi took out a piece of paper and began to scribble something. No one could tell what it was supposed to be.

“Merry Christmas, Kiriyama!” Yuka smiled at him, holding out a tin of cookies. “Here, take one. My mother and sister made them. You must be starving, going around and giving out so many presents.”

“I think I will take one,” Kazuo said, taking a bite of a cookie. He had been trying to ignore the growls of his stomach for awhile. He nodded in approval at the taste, though he knew that if he cared enough to make some, he could probably do better.

He gave Yuka her present and she quietly thanked him, beginning to tear off the wrapping paper. She had received a nice, good-quality notebook, with something inscribed on the front.

‘101 EXCELLENT JOKES, WRITTEN BY KAZUO KIRIYAMA’

All the jokes were awful. Kazuo hadn’t been able to master comedy, and decided he didn’t care enough to continue pursuing it.

Yuka opened the book and went to start reading one of the horrible jokes, when a screeching noise caught her attention. She looked up to see Ryuhei, in a shopping cart, an inflatable Santa in tow, speeding down the street in the cart. At the sight, she snorted in laughter.

Kazuo didn’t notice this. Instead, he thought Yuka had laughed at one of the jokes. Finally, someone was grateful for their gift.

Upon seeing Ryuhei in the cart, Hiroshi began to run after it, but it was gone before he had even gotten down Yuka’s driveway – it was much too fast. He let it go, wondering if they’d ever catch it.

**_Shuya Nanahara & Yoshitoki Kuninobu _ **

Shuya and Yoshitoki sat together in the large hall that served as the charity house’s dining room, watching the staff prepare for the upcoming Christmas dinner and breathing in the scent of the meal that was being made in the kitchen. Their Christmases had always been bittersweet, with it seemingly all or most of the rest of their classmates spending it with their parents, but they definitely did still find enjoyment in the holiday. Both of them just loved the general feel of the season, and they enjoyed the fact they got to celebrate together every year too. The Christmas dinner was another one of their favourites, and they waited all year for it.

“Shuya, Yoshitoki,” Ms. Anno called out, taking the boys’ attention off the upcoming dinner for awhile. “There’s people waiting at the door to see you. I think they’re from your school.”

Shuya and Yoshitoki left the dining room, calling out that they’d be there in a moment. Due to the fact that neither of them had a phone and they had to fight their way through a lot of other children to get on one of the limited computers, neither of them knew about Kazuo going around giving gifts. More than anything, they had expected Shinji to be at the door, seeing as he would be spending the holidays alone.

When they saw Kazuo there, the Kiriyama family behind him (they’d given up on hiding, and Kazuo had decided to just let them stay in sight, as people seemed to gives allowances at Christmas), Shuya and Yoshitoki’s eyes widened. They both stepped back when Kazuo reached into his bag, wondering what was going on.

“Oh… Merry Christmas, Kiriyama,” Shuya was the first to speak, giving Kazuo a smile. _That was the power of Christmas_ , he thought to himself. _Even Kazuo Kiriyama can’t resist getting into the Christmas spirit…_

“Thank you. Here,” Kazuo handed a present to each of them.

Yoshitoki eagerly took his gift, forgetting to say thank you. He ripped open the paper within seconds, and saw that he had received a can of deodorant.

“I have noticed you have experienced some struggles with your love life at school,” Kazuo said, obviously referring to the many times Yoshitoki had tried and failed to get the attention of Noriko Nakagawa. “I figured this might help.”

Yoshitoki’s face went bright red. Shuya couldn’t help himself – while he loved Yoshitoki, he still burst out laughing.

“L-let’s see what you got, Shuya,” Yoshitoki said, wanting to forget about what had just happened. Shuya nodded, though still laughing, and began to open his present.

Kazuo had overheard Shuya say once in PE that is shoes were beginning to wear out, so he decided to improvise with what he had. Shuya held a pair of small black leather shoes in his hands, with a piece of pink string inside. While he was disappointed slightly, especially because the shoes were useless to him, he knew it could have been worse. He could have been humiliated, as Yoshitoki had been.

Still, as he had thought of him enough to come to the charity house and give him and his best friend a gift, Shuya thanked Kazuo. Kazuo didn’t seem to think much of his thanks, and went to leave, but Hiroshi stepped in front of him before he could get far. Mitsuru gave him a confused look, anger burning in his eyes, as if to ask him, _‘what the fuck are you doing,’_ but Hiroshi didn’t seem to care.

“Wait wait wait, before we go, I have to ask something,” Hiroshi said hurriedly. He pulled a piece of paper out of the pocket of his jacket, the same one he had been scribbling on in the bushes earlier. “Have you seen this boy?”

Shuya and Yoshitoki leaned into the drawing that Hiroshi was holding up, frowns on their faces. It was drawn so awfully that until Hiroshi had said it was a boy, they hadn’t even thought it was a person.

“Wait, what even is that?” Yoshitoki frowned. Hiroshi looked at him as if he were an idiot, and pointed to the letters sloppily written in the bottom left corner, reading ‘Ryuhei.’

“Sorry, Kuronaga, but I still don’t know who that is,” Shuya said sadly, wishing he could be of more help, but Hiroshi’s writing was essentially illegible.

“I thought you could read, Nanahara. We’re looking for Ryuhei. He’s in a shopping cart,” Hiroshi explained.

“O-oh,” Shuya said. He looked at the drawing again, but could see no resemblance between the grotesque portrait and Ryuhei. He decided not to focus on it. “Do you have an idea where he may be? If he’s all right-“

“Sorry, Shuya, but I have to say something about that picture – Jesus Christ! You definitely aren’t an artist, Kuronaga. I mean, is that a joke portrait of Ryuhei, because if you want to find him-“ Yoshitoki began, before being cut off by Shuya, who was starting to go a shade of pink.

“D-don’t worry about him, he just gets a bit… excited sometimes,” Shuya said, noticing Hiroshi’s face had gone stone cold.

Just as Shuya was beginning to wish that the ground would split open and swallow him up whole, Ms. Anno called them for dinner. Immediately, thinking of the large table filled with food and getting the perfect seat by his favourite dishes, Yoshitoki bolted without saying a single goodbye, which only embarrassed Shuya more.

“I.. I’m really sorry,” Shuya began, “but I have to go. The food is really good, and there’s a lot of kids and most of them like having seconds so… goodbye. I hope you find your friend!”

Within seconds, Shuya had disappeared down the hallway to go join Yoshitoki at the table.

Kazuo sighed at his rudeness, shut the door, and looked down at the list. They’d gone to just over half of the houses so far, and the only real ‘problem’ he’d encountered (well, if you could call it a problem), was losing Ryuhei. It had been a pretty good night.

**_Kazushi Niida_ **

Kazushi had not expected to see anyone at his door on Christmas. He hadn’t gotten the memo about Kazuo delivering presents, as he had been kicked out of the group chat the night before (for the seventh time that month), over making inappropriate comments to Takako. Still, when the doorbell rang, he began to feel slightly hopeful. Maybe… by some sort of Christmas miracle… Takako was there, and had decided to become his girlfriend? He placed a sprig of fake mistletoe in his pocket, just in case.

When he saw Kazuo and his gang at the door, his face fell.

Kazuo didn’t bother saying a word to Kazushi. He just pulled his present out of his bag, and just about threw it at him. Even the boy who was incapable of feeling emotion hated Kazushi. He had almost wanted to just skip his house, but then he’d found something on the floor that reminded him entirely of him, and knew he couldn’t. Kazushi needed it in his life.

“Sweet,” Kazushi said, beginning to rip off the paper greedily.

His face fell for the second time. In his hands was a copy of a thick book, it’s title being, _‘Failing My Way To Success: An Emotional, Financial and Physical Journey From Hell.’_ That had been enough to destroy his pride, but then his eyes fell on the small red circle stuck to the corner. Inside, at the back, there was a sneak peek at _‘HELP! I’m 35 and Never Had A Relationship! How To Cope With Being Alone Forever,’_ and the shreds of pride that were left over were completely obliterated.

“I thought this may be useful in the future, Niida,” Kazuo nodded at the book. Behind him, the Kiriyama family were in stitches.

Kazushi went inside, slammed the door, and went into his room to sob.

**_Chisato Matsui_ **

Kazuo and his gang were about ten minutes away from the next home on the list when Sho’s phone began to ping, some new messages coming in from the group chat. Immediately, hoping that either a fight had started or some good gossip was being shared – maybe even both, if they were lucky.

That had happened last week in the group chat. Mitsuko and Hirono had engaged in a record-breaking five hour fight in the group chat (the previous record had been held by them, at three hours) where well-crafted insults had been thrown, outrageous gossip had been shared, and everyone had found out way too much about both of them. Everyone had been all ears, and wondered why Yukie hadn’t banned the two. Secretly, Sho thought she enjoyed the fights too, but she’d never admit it.

Unfortunately, it was very disappointing. The messages had only been sent by Chisato, and she wasn’t exactly fight starting or gossip sharing material. Still, wanting to keep up to date with the chat, he opened them.

_Chisato Matsui has sent a video._

**Chisato Matsui: Is this what you’re looking for, Numai?**

**Chisato Matsui: It was speeding down my street, too fast to catch. I took a video of what I could see just in case it would be helpful.**

Sho tapped on the video, and began to watch it. The video was about eight seconds long, and in it, you could see a shopping cart speeding by, an inflatable Santa in tow. Once he heard the screaming, he had no doubt it was Ryuhei.

**Mitsuko Souma:** oh my god

**Shinji Mimura:** I can sense a meme coming

Sho rolled his eyes at Shinji’s meme comment, and locked his phone, stuffing it back in his pocket.

“Sho, stop taking selfies, and hurry up,” Mitsuru called from much further ahead. Sho glared at him, despite the fact he could only see the back of his head.

“I’m not taking selfies, the lighting is atrocious here,” Sho snapped. “In fact, I was checking the group chat. Matsui sent a video. She spotted Ryuhei.”

Everybody stopped to let Sho catch up with them, and one by one, he showed each of them the video. Kazuo just stared at it, wondering what type of physical condition Ryuhei would be in by the time they found him, Hiroshi laughed hysterically, and Mitsuru just rolled his eyes, holding back laughter. At least they knew more than ever that he’d be hard to miss once they got close to him.

“We should go to Matsui’s house now,” Hiroshi said. While Ryuhei screaming and sobbing in a shopping cart was hilarious, he was really starting to miss him. They were at each other’s throats all the time and mercilessly bullied one another, but he still regarded Ryuhei as a close friend (he would never say this out loud, though, the closest to this had come when he had called Ryuhei his ‘bro’). It wouldn’t be the same without him.

“She isn’t next on the list,” Kazuo said, taking the small piece of paper out of his pocket. “Fujiyoshi is.” He had made this list for a reason, and was determined to stick to it.

“May I see the list, Boss?” Hiroshi asked. Slightly reluctant, Kazuo nodded, and gave it to him. He hoped it wasn’t the wrong decision. At times, it appeared that Hiroshi was prone to ruining everything he touched.

Hiroshi’s eyes went down to Chisato’s name, and then to Fumiyo’s. He was determined to find Ryuhei.

“We need to go to Matsui’s house, Boss. At this very moment, Ryuhei is getting away!” Hiroshi insisted. Sho raised an eyebrow at this, as he seemed very stuck on this for a person that often was beaten up and insulted by Ryuhei. Perhaps… there was more to this?

Before Sho could start teasing Hiroshi, Mitsuru spoke, trying to undo Hiroshi’s mess.

“Let me see that,” Mitsuru said, taking the list from Hiroshi and skimming through it. He turned to Kazuo, trying to pick the right words. “Boss… what I think he’s trying to say is that he’s come up with a practical… change to the route. Matsui’s house is really close to here, it seems from the list, and then Fujiyoshi’s house is several streets down.”

Mitsuru watched Kazuo begin to think, but he couldn’t tell what was going on in his mind. He was the closest to him, as second in command and all, but he still couldn’t tell what was going on in there for the life of him. He hoped it was good – he had mentioned practicality, which was rather important to Kazuo.

After several minutes of pondering, Kazuo held out a hand for the list and took a pen from his pocket, making a few quick alterations to the list. He would be willing to bend if it was for practical reasons.

“All right, we shall go to Matsui’s house, and then Fujiyoshi’s. That was a rather decent idea, Numai,” Kazuo said, and he was off again.

Mitsuru, then and there, just about died – ‘decent’ was pretty much the best compliment you could get from Kazuo! Sho continued to give him death glares during the whole walk to Chisato’s house, but he didn’t care. Mitsuru had always known that he had been Kazuo’s favourite, even though he didn’t show it, and now he had the compliment to prove it.

 

They arrived at Chisato’s house about eight minutes later, and when Kazuo knocked on the door, Mitsuru and Sho had to actually _hold_ Hiroshi back to stop him from rushing up to the door to ask about Ryuhei.

“Hello, Kiriyama. Merry Christmas,” Chisato greeted him with a smile. “Oh, and Merry Christmas to your friends as well. I know you’re giving out presents, but I take it you’re also here because of the video I posted?”

“Yes! Tell us everything!” Hiroshi shouted from behind Kazuo. Mitsuru kicked him in the shin, and he almost cried.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t know where he is anymore. He disappeared down the street in a flash, so fast that I couldn’t even hear his screams in the distance anymore,” Chisato said sadly, wishing she could have done more. If she had managed to find him, maybe it would mean that they would get Ryuhei to leave her and her group of friends alone.

“That is fine. Here,” Kazuo said, passing Chisato a gift. He was choosing to ignore Hiroshi in the background, who was now stomping around in circles yelling ‘fuck’ over and over.

“Thank you,” Chisato smiled. For a moment, she wondered if she should ask if Hiroshi was okay, but figured that Kazuo wouldn’t really care.

“We are going to leave now,” Kazuo simply said in response, and turned away.

Chisato nodded and said goodbye. When they were out of sight, she shut the door and opened her present. It was a cookbook that had obviously seen better days, judging by the fact that most of the pages had been torn out and it was rather battered. Still, when she took a quick skim through the book, the recipes that were still left in the book seemed rather nice, and she’d probably have a go and making some of them for her friends one day.

It was the thought behind the gift that counted the most.

**_Fumiyo Fujiyoshi_ **

Kazuo and his gang were sitting in the Fujiyoshi living room. They hadn’t _meant_ for this to happen, but now that it had, they were sitting on a small sofa while Fumiyo’s mother passed around biscuits and hot chocolate, and her twin brother sat on the floor playing video games. They had knocked on the door and expected Fumiyo to come out but instead saw her mother and father, and once they found out that they had a present for Fumiyo and were in her class, insisted that they come in. Kazuo had tried to stop this, but they had just about been pushed through the door.

He had been drawn in by the biscuits. Kazuo had a strange, somewhat fondness for biscuits. Even though they were rather unhealthy, he could never turn down the offer of one.

“Fumiyo should be down in a minute,” Mrs. Fujiyoshi smiled at the boys, taking a sip of hot chocolate. She looked down at the tray of biscuits in her hands. “Do you boys want anymore biscuits?”

“Yeah… I mean, if that’s all right, of course,” Hiroshi stuttered.

“Of course it is! You boys seem lovely, you can have as many biscuits as you want,” Mrs. Fujiyoshi reached the tray over to Hiroshi, and he took another biscuit.

Mitsuru glared into his hot chocolate. They were the _Kiriyama family_ , not ‘lovely boys.’ Still, he had to admit, Mrs. Fujiyoshi’s hot chocolate was pretty nice.

When the boys had finished their hot chocolates, Fumiyo came down the stairs, expecting to see someone from her friend group sitting in the living room. When she saw Kazuo and his gang, she froze in place for a moment, before telling herself to keep going. She was rather quiet in the group chat, only occasionally sharing a homework answer or typing a ‘haha’ in response to one of Shinji’s memes, but she read every message, so she knew he was coming. She just didn’t expect to see them in her living room.

“Oh, here she is,” Mrs. Fujiyoshi smiled. “Your friends came all this way to see you on Christmas Eve, so I thought it would be nice to give them some hot chocolate.”

“Thanks, mom,” Fumiyo said quietly, not having the heart to tell her mother the Kiriyama family were not her friends.

Kazuo and his gang got up off the couch, getting ready to leave soon. As Kazuo passed a small gift to Fumiyo, Sho took out a cigarette out of his pocket as well as his lighter, needing a smoke. Just as Fumiyo began to tear the paper, he dropped the open lighter onto the Fujiyoshi family’s sofa.

Inexplicably, the entire sofa burst into flames. Fumiyo and her brother screamed and jumped out of the way, but their parents insisted they could handle it.

Mitsuru ran into the kitchen and grabbed a bucket, filling it with water. _Couldn’t Sho have waited a couple more minutes to have a damn smoke?_

When he got back into the living room, the sofa still burning, he saw Sho in the corner, lighting a cigarette with his backup lighter This time, he did not set anything on fire, but Mitsuru still rolled his eyes.

“I got it,” Mitsuru said over the screams of Fumiyo and her twin, and threw the bucket of water. The water, instead of hitting the sofa, completely drenched Hiroshi.

“What the fuck, man?!” Hiroshi yelled. Fumiyo’s mother ran to get a towel, throwing it over Hiroshi as Fumiyo’s father put out the fire.

“We are leaving now,” Kazuo said calmly, and he and his gang left.

With shaking hands, Fumiyo opened her present. It was an empty box of Band-Aids. She sighed, and promptly threw it away. Their couch had been set on fire… for an _empty box of Band-Aids._ She couldn’t believe it. If anything, if she had to find a positive, she’d have an interesting story to tell every Christmas.

Fumiyo’s mother watched them leave, and just shook her head lightly.

“What strange boys…”

**_Mayumi Tendo_ **

Kazuo knew absolutely nothing about Mayumi, so he didn’t put in any effort at all. He passed her the present without a word, knowing that this would probably be a rather boring exchange and they would move on promptly. He didn’t mind much, however. It would be better than setting someone’s couch on fire.

Mitsuru, Sho and Hiroshi stood behind Kazuo as he knocked on Mayumi’s door, waiting. Hiroshi and Mitsuru were shoving one another, Hiroshi still furious over the water incident at Fumiyo’s house. He was still wrapped in the towel, and shivering, but he still continued to waste his remaining strength on shoving Mitsuru. Sho had decided to ignore them, and was instead looking through the group chat.

**Shinji Mimura:** Any news about Sasagawa? Pictures/videos?

**Sho Tsukioka:** Not at this point in time

**Sho Tsukioka:** and I know that the only reason you are asking is because you are plotting to make a new class meme.

_Yukie Utsumi has added Kazushi Niida to the group._

**Takako Chigusa:** Yukie I thought you said that it was the last straw when you kicked him out

**Hirono Shimizu:** She always says that

**Kazushi Niida:** Hey guys! Any of you gotten a visit from Kiriyama?

**Mitsuko Souma:** Yeah sadly

**Takako Chigusa:** as you have chosen to be a repulsive toad, you have obviously haven’t gotten the memo.

**Yukie Utsumi:** What Chigusa means to say, is that Kiriyama is going around giving presents to everyone. It’s quite nice of him to think of us J

_Fumiyo Fujiyoshi has sent a photo._

**Fumiyo Fujiyoshi:** Kiriyama’s the reason why we don’t have a couch anymore

**Yukie Utsumi:** That’s… unfortunate.

**Sho Tsukioka:** IT WAS AN ACCIDENT

**Sho Tsukioka:** you can get a new couch from the town dump calm down

**Kazushi Niida:** that isn’t bad at all compared to what happened to me

_Kazushi Niida has sent a photo._

**Kazushi Niida:** Look what I got

**Takako Chigusa:** OH MY GOD

**Takako Chigusa:** HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

**Mitsuko Souma:** well, it will come in handy for you later in life

**Kazushi Niida:** THAT’S WHAT HE SAID

**Takako Chigusa:** HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA I’M DYING

**Mitsuko Souma:** I think Chigusa is broken.

“Sho, hurry up!” Mitsuru yelled, bringing him back to the present. Sho shot him a dirty look, but put his phone away all the same, breaking into a jog to catch up with the rest of the group.

Kazuo looked back down at the list, and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw there were only about eleven houses left to go to. He hoped the people left were more grateful for what he’d gotten them than Mayumi was.

It wasn’t his fault he’d forgotten that the bottle of shampoo he’d given her was empty. It was a simply mistake, really.

**_Yuko Sakaki_ **

When Yuko heard the doorbell ring, the knots of anxiety that had filled her stomach tightened considerably. She had never spoken in the class group chat even once, but often read through it, wishing she could speak up and say something, but she’d never been able to will herself to. When she’d found out that Kazuo Kiriyama and his gang would be visiting her house sometime during the evening, she had began to feel quite anxious. She had been picked on by Ryuhei several times that had really stuck with her in the past, and she doubted that the others were any nicer.

_At least Sasagawa won’t be there,_ Yuko thought to herself, taking a few deep breaths as she began to walk to the door. She had caught up with the news in the group chat about Ryuhei and the out of control shopping cart, which had given her some relief. The others had never targeted her as he had.

“H-h-hi Kiriyama,” Yuko mumbled as she opened the door. Hiroshi, Mitsuru and Sho were leaning against the wall, looking quite bored and didn’t seem to care much about her, which made her feel better. Kazuo being the only person with their attention on her wasn’t too bad, she decided. Kazuo didn’t seem to care much about anyone, and had always stayed out of it when the Kiriyama family bullied people.

“Merry Christmas, Sakaki,” Kazuo nodded at her, passing her a present. She mumbled a thank you.

Carefully, Yuko opened the present, hoping it wasn’t an insult present, like Yoshio and Yoji’s had been (people had started sharing their gifts after Kazushi had), as she wasn’t sure how she’d cope with it. She wouldn’t count Kazushi as a receiver of an insult present – his was rather a reality check. She willed herself to not close her eyes when she opened her present, and when she saw what it was, she was relieved, yet kind of confused.

She was holding a photograph of Kazuo, that was in a really nice frame. She wondered if this was a mistake.

“I heard one of your friends once say you look quite sad often,” Kazuo began to explain his reasoning behind the gift. “I thought that since my face seems to make Numai and Tsukioka among others smile, it may work for you.”

Yuko looked up at him, eyes wide. That was oddly… sweet?

“O-oh,” Yuko nodded slowly. “T-thank you for the present, Kiriyama. M-m-merry Christmas.”

Kazuo nodded at her, and then began to leave with his gang.

That was nowhere as bad as Yuko thought it would have been.

**_Hirono Shimizu_ **

The next home on the list was Hirono Shimizu’s. Kazuo had never really interacted with her and the Kiriyama family didn’t really have a good history with her (such as one of the many times Ryuhei was harassing Yoshio, Hirono had become sick of hearing his voice and had gone over to punch him, making him cry), as Sho had played a role in making Hirono the class meme just a little while ago. It had entertained everyone for quite a long time, and had greatly damaged Hirono’s reputation.  She was still trying to recover from it.

Kazuo knocked loudly on Hirono’s front door, Sho, Hiroshi and Mitsuru standing beside him. Hiroshi was already laughing. Ever since the day Hirono had become the class meme, he had laughed every time he saw her. It was a surprise to everyone she hadn’t punched him yet, but Mitsuru figured the day would come soon enough.

“I figured you’d come around soon,” Hirono muttered upon seeing them at the door. “Let’s get this over with.”

Kazuo handed her a small, soft package that she quickly began to open, knowing that the sooner she opened it, the sooner Kazuo and his gang would leave. As soon as she tore off a strip of wrapping paper, pink and purple sparkles caught her eye.

_No. No._

Kazuo had given her the dress. _The dress._ The dress that had made her the class meme for what felt like forever.

“No. Fucking. Way,” Hirono snapped, throwing the dress back at Kazuo. It landed in a heap on his shoulder. She slammed the door in his face.

“Merry Christmas, Shimizu,” Kazuo called out, throwing the dress on her doorstep before turning to leave.

“FUCK YOU.”

**_Kyoichi Motobuchi_ **

“Is this going to take long, Kiriyama?” Kyoichi asked when he saw him standing at the door. He held his textbook tightly, already wanting to go back to his room to continue studying. If he didn’t stop over the holidays, he just _had_ to beat Kiriyama. He _had_ to.

“Merry Christmas, Motobuchi,” Kazuo simply said in response, giving him the gift.

With a raised eyebrow, Kyoichi took it, knowing that he’d be able to get back inside sooner if he just went along with it. He looked down at the square shaped package and went to start tearing off the paper, but suddenly stopped himself. What if Kiriyama was trying to… _sabotage_ him.

“Today would be nice,” Sho muttered from behind Kazuo. Kyoichi shot him a glare, gripping the gift tightly.

“What if this is just a trick?” Kyoichi narrowed his eyes at Kazuo and his gang.

“Fucking Christ, calm down,” Mitsuru muttered. “If you weren’t such a nerd and actually checked the class group chat for once, you’d know that the Boss is going to everyone’s houses and given them presents. At least be _grateful.”_

Kyoichi, just to shut Mitsuru up, ripped off the wrapping paper as fast as possible. In his hands he now held a thin book, with the title ‘UNDERSTANDING SHAPES: A GUIDE FOR CHILDREN 5 AND UNDER.’

He was livid.

“Is… is this an _insult to my intelligence?”_ Kyoichi spat. Kazuo looked at him blankly. He just knew that Kyoichi liked to learn and study, so he picked one of the only educational things he felt like giving away.

Kazuo took the book out of Kyoichi’s hands, and began to flip through to the sticker page in the middle. Carefully, he peeled out a sticker that read, ‘champ!’ and stuck it on Kyoichi’s cheek.

Kyoichi laughed nervously, and had a slight smile on his face. Kazuo’s action had been quite… endearing.

**_Toshinori Oda_ **

So far, getting to his classmate’s houses had not been a major problem for Kazuo, until he arrived at Toshinori’s house. There was a fence around the whole property, and the gates at the front were shut. Kazuo walked up to the intercom that was by the gate, Mitsuru, Sho and Hiroshi trailing behind him, and pressed the button. Toshinori’s rather irritating voice began to come out of it.

_‘This is the Oda residence. I suppose, since you have pressed this button, you wish to come inside. Before you announce yourself, listen to this message. You will not be granted access to the premises if you are vulgar. Vulgar people include tall people-‘_

Toshinori’s message continued to list all the people he found to be unbelievably vulgar, but everyone had stopped listening. Kazuo climbed the fence, and Mitsuru and Hiroshi followed. Sho waited for them outside of the property, leaning against the fence, not wanting to risk ruining his outfit. He lit a cigarette to keep himself preoccupied.

Kazuo knocked on the door, and after a few minutes, Toshinori opened it. He gave him an absolute look of hatred. As Toshinori was not in the class group chat, he had no idea that Kazuo was coming. When Yukie had created it, he had been added of course, but quickly sent a message saying he had no interest chatting to vulgar people, and promptly left the chat.

“How did you get past the intercom?” Toshinori snapped at Kazuo and his gang.

“It was boring as shit. We stopped listening after a minute, then climbed the fence,” Mitsuru informed him. At his comment, Kazuo just nodded. There was no need to add more – he had explained it good enough.

“Here,” Kazuo said, before Toshinori could respond. He passed him his gift.

Toshinori ripped it open quickly, wanting to get it over with. In his hands was a frog plushie. At the sight of it, Mitsuru and Hiroshi began to laugh hysterically. Could Kazuo, somewhere, deep down, have a sense of humour?

It wasn’t that complex. Kazuo could recall hearing a few people say something to do with Toshinori and frogs, and had decided to give him the plushie.

“You… you… you VULGAR being! How dare you show up to _my_ house, and give me this… this… this VULGAR thing! Leave now, or I will get security! NOW!” Toshinori began to shout at them.

Kazuo complied, as he had completed the task at hand anyway, but Hiroshi hadn’t moved. He took the bad drawing of Ryuhei out of his wallet, and shoved it in Toshinori’s face.

“Oh, by the way, before we go, have you seen this boy?” Hiroshi asked.

“What is that VULGAR THING?!” Toshinori said in disgust.

Mitsuru grabbed Hiroshi by the wrist and began to lead him away.

**_Noriko Nakagawa_ **

While she was surprised by the fact that Kazuo really _was_ giving presents to every classmate, Noriko still tried to be nice to the Kiriyama family. To some extent she believed in Christmas miracles, but the Kiriyama family suddenly changing during the holidays was not something she could trust.

After she opened her present, which was a letter writing set with all the envelopes missing, the paper used, and none of the pens working, Hiroshi was allowed to take centre stage. Noriko tried to smile at them, wanting to try and appreciate the (minimal) thought that had gone into her gift.

“Have you seen this boy?” Hiroshi asked, showing her the bad drawing of Ryuhei. Noriko frowned and leaned in to get a better look. While she noticed his name written beside the sketch, she could not for the life of her see how it was supposed to be Ryuhei.

“N-no, I haven’t, Kuronaga. Sorry,” Noriko mumbled. She’d seen the messages about Ryuhei in the class group chat, but hadn’t believed anything that ridiculous could have happened to him until Chisato had sent the video to the group chat.

At that moment, Noriko’s little brother rushed through the front door, pushing past Kazuo and his gang.

“Noriko! Noriko! Noriko! I was walking home, and suddenly, I saw this shopping cart speeding past me! There was a boy in it… and Santa!”

Noriko’s eyes widened, and watched as Hiroshi demanded to know all about the Ryuhei sighting. It had been a credible one, but led them nowhere. Ryuhei was still out there somewhere in the shopping cart, lost to them yet again.

**_Hiroki Sugimura_ **

Hiroki looked down at the toothbrushes in his hand, and sighed.

“Um… thanks?” Hiroki said with a raised eyebrow. It wasn’t bad, like Yoshio’s book had been or Yukie’s out of date aspirin… it was just an odd gift.

“Practicing good dental hygiene is important, Sugimura. You have decent teeth. It would be in your best interest to keep them that way,” Kazuo nodded.

Hiroki looked back down at the toothbrushes awkwardly, wishing that he was anywhere but here.

“We are going to leave now,” Kazuo said, and Hiroki willed himself not to sigh in relief.

Hiroshi was about to pull out the bad drawing of Ryuhei again, but Mitsuru stopped him, dragging him down the path. Hiroshi sighed. It was starting to feel as if he would never see him again…

**_Megumi Eto_ **

“It’s a loaf of bread,” Megumi said sadly after opening her present.

Kazuo looked at her, and just shrugged. He honestly didn’t know what to get her.

“Enjoy your bread,” was all he said before he and his gang left.

**_Kaori Minami_ **

Kaori eagerly tore the wrapping paper off her gift. She’d never expected to get a present from a classmate other than Mizuho on the holidays, and her gifts… were rather weird. Her gift was a white t-shirt. She quickly unfolded it, and her face lit up when she saw a photo of Junya on it.

That was, until she noticed the red cross through his perfect face, and the text: ‘OFFICIAL T-SHIRT OF THE I HATE JUNYA CLUB.’ Kaori began to weep.

_That wasn’t what was supposed to happen,_ Kazuo thought to himself. _Then again, I think people do cry of joy too…._

“H-how can anyone HATE Junya?!” Kaori sobbed. “Junya… always there for me… always there… no one can hate him…”

Kazuo hadn’t done this with malicious intent. He’d just found the shirt on his floor, and Kaori happened to get it. It was just chance that she’d gotten it.

As Kaori continued to weep, Hiroshi, Sho and Mitsuru studied her. She was in her class, of course, as she was on Kazuo’s gift list, but they could just not place her anywhere. It was probably someone that they barely bothered with. Sho and Mitsuru weren’t going to be bothered saying anything, but of course, Hiroshi had to open his mouth.

“Wait, who even _are_ you?”

“I… I’ve been in your class all year,” Kaori sobbed, taking off her glasses to wipe her tears away. Mitsuru looked at her again, a name beginning to tug at his mind.

“Wait… you’re Mizuho, right?” Mitsuru asked triumphantly.

Kaori only cried more.

**_Izumi Kanai_ **

After Kaori’s house, Mitsuru got a text from his mother saying that they would be serving Christmas dinner in about fifteen minutes, and he had decided to go home. Hiroshi had made fun of him mercilessly for this, but as soon as Mitsuru punched him in the face before leaving, he shut up. Sho, Hiroshi and Kazuo had carried on, Hiroshi still keeping an eye out for Ryuhei, but he hadn’t seen him or heard him at all.

Sho had checked the group chat, and there was no Ryuhei news. There was only Shinji, complaining about the game that Kazuo had given him, that was essentially impossible to beat.

Izumi’s house was next up. Kazuo had given her a bottle of perfume. Girls liked that stuff, didn’t they?

When Izumi looked kind of upset after she opened the bottle, Kazuo was confused.

“A-a-are you saying I don’t smell nice?” Izumi asked, tearing up.

Kazuo sighed. Humans were complicated.

**_Yutaka Seto_ **

Yutaka smiled when he opened the wrapping paper to see that a box of candy canes were inside. They were one of his favourite parts of the holidays, and having a huge box to himself seemed like heaven. Already eager to have the first one, he opened the box to find it empty.

“It was full when I wrapped it,” Kazuo simply said.

He turned around to see Sho and Hiroshi in the bushes, eating candy canes. They both gave him sheepish smiles.

“We were hungry...”

**_Shogo Kawada_ **

Shogo raised an eyebrow at the small circular package Kazuo gave him, but he opened it anyway. A small, soft ball was inside, made to look like the Earth.

“It is a stress ball,” Kazuo nodded. “Judging by the look you wear on your face most of the time, it appears like you need it.”

Shogo glared at him, and squeezed the stress ball twice.

**_Tatsumichi Oki_ **

Tatsumichi was the last person left on the list, and with all the gifts people got constantly being shared in the group chat, he was nervous. So nervous, in fact, that when Kazuo and his gang showed up at the door, he snatched the present, shut the door, and preceded to smash it to smithereens without opening it. His mother had been there, and was quite worried for his mental health, but decided to let him be.

He now sat at his computer, constant messages coming in from the group chat.

**Kazuo Kiriyama:** I hope you all have managed to find at least a shred of appreciation in their gifts. All of them have now been delivered.

**Yukie Utsumi:** I think there’s only two people we’re waiting on to find out what they got. Does anyone remember who we’re missing?

**Chisato Matsui:** Oda and Oki.

**Yukie Utsumi:** Oda isn’t in the group chat, remember? He said it was too vulgar.

**Hirono Shimizu:** frog boy thinks everything is vulgar.

**Sho Tsukioka:** He got a frog plushie.

**Hiroshi Kuronaga:** It was fucking hilarious.

**Hirono Shimizu:** I wish I could have seen his face. oh my god.

**Chisato Matsui:** anyway, Oki’s online, and I can tell he’s reading the messages so

**Chisato Matsui:** what did you get?

Tatsumichi bit his lip, and looked over nervously at the battered gift. He forced himself to type out a response.

**Tatsumichi Oki:** um

**Tatsumichi Oki:** I haven’t opened it yet. I kind of smashed it to pieces.

**Kazuo Kiriyama:** Well, that was rather rude.

**Yukie Utsumi:** Can you take a look at what you got, Oki? I bet it isn’t bad J

Tatsumichi sighed, and opened the gift. His eyes widened when he saw the beaten remains of the gift… he’d gotten a box of gourmet chocolates… that were absolutely fine before they had been battered. He closed his eyes tightly, knowing the verbal beat down he would get in the chat, and took a photo.

_Tatsumichi Oki has sent a photo._

**Mitsuko Souma:** ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME

**Mitsuko Souma:** CHOCOLATES. YOU GOT CHOCOLATES. AND YOU FUCKING DESTROYED THEM

**Mitsuko Souma:** YOU ARE A DISGRACE. DON’T BOTHER COMING TO SCHOOL EVER AGAIN.

**Shinji Mimura:** I guess I was wrong. I think Oki is gonna be the new meme.

Oki hid his face in his hands, and braced himself for the assault of memes that would soon start coming.

Then, out of nowhere, a saviour arrived.

_Ryuhei Sasagawa has sent a video._

Tatsumichi pressed ‘play,’ and began to watch. Ryuhei was rolling through the streets of Shiroiwa, screaming and sobbing into the camera.

“I’VE BEEN STUCK IN THIS CART FOR HOURS. I’M SCARED. PLEASE HELP ME. I CAN’T TAKE THIS ANYMORE OH MY GOD A HILL IS COMING I’M GONNA DIE I’M GONNA DIE I’M GONNA DIE- AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH-“

The video then ended, and for a long time, the group chat was quiet, until a message came in twenty minutes later.

_Shinji Mimura has sent a link._

The link lead to a video, entitled ‘SCREAMING RYUHEI (DUBSTEP REMIX).

It was obvious Ryuhei was going to be the new class meme from that moment on.

 

Overall, almost everyone (except obviously Ryuhei) in Class 3-B had a good Christmas. Shinji spent his making memes. Tatsumichi was relieved he had escaped being the class meme. The Ryuhei memes made Mitsuko feel less alone. Yoshio spent the holiday laughing over and over again, unable to believe how the tables had turned, and Ryuhei was now the one being mercilessly made fun of again.

Kazuo pressed the replay button on the ‘SCREAMING RYUHEI (DUBSTEP REMIX)’ again. Everyone seemed to be having an amazing time due to this meme, and while Shinji had made the first video, Kazuo knew this wouldn’t have happened without him.

He had given his classmates the best possible gift of all.


End file.
